---- title: Matroid Rainbow Base Cover ---- Let $M=(E,\mathcal B)$ be a rank-$r$ matroid whose ground set decomposes into two disjoint bases. Furthermore, assume that $E$ is colored by $r$ colors, each color appearing exactly twice. A basis of $M$ is called rainbow if it does not contain two elements of the same color. ::: Problem What is the minimum number of rainbow bases needed to cover $E$? ::: Kristóf Bérczi conjectured the minimum number is 3. Currently known bounds: - upperbound: $\floor{\log_2 |E|}+1$ by matroid intersection; - lowerbound: $3$ on graphic matroid of $K_4$. ::: {.Conjecture #conj-doublecover} Let $M_1$ and $M_2$ be two matroid on the same ground set $E$. Assume that $E$ decomposes into two bases in both of them. Then $M_1$ and $M_2$ has four common bases that cover each element exactly twice. ::: Let $M_1$ be the partition matroid of colors and let $M_2$ be $M$. If [@conj-doublecover] is true, then 3 common bases will be enough to cover $E$.